The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE SATURDAY, MAY 17, 1919. GERMANS WILL SIGN.

Taihape Daily Times, 17 May 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

SATURDAY, MAY 17, 1919. GERMANS WILL SIGN.

(With whieh i& Ineorpnratefl The T*i« hape Poat tad WalEHUiiao New»).

The German ■ Government is giving Allied and neutral correspondents in Berlin a- lively time in chronicling and /despatching reports of exhibitions and of demonstrations of the rumpns Germany will.kick up rather than sign the peace terms. It all helps German leaders' to make the people believe that

they arc astonished at' the violent nature of the terms and at the audacity and dishonesty of'the peoples who evolved them. Tlicy seem to be smothering exact facts with the volubility of their vapouring* while toning the population up to a correct and full knowledge of Germany's helplessness; but, will the German Government sign the terms, and. if not. what will be the position of. Government and people 1 ? We think there is little cause for doubt about the signatures being forthcoming up to time, for otherwise the German situation would 'be incalculably worse under the more severe terms they would be confronted with. However much Britain and America might be disposed to lighten the war-bill, France, Italy. Belgium, and Serbia cannot ailord to do so. nor would it be a sane act, owing to geographical circumstances. Our Continental Allies are determined that military fireworks shall not be obtainable in German territory and that the old world-menacing Prussian war spirit shall be caged and curbed until it dies a natural death. France, Italy, and Belgium cannot afford to take risks, and either of these Governments that weakened on the Terms presented would be anathema with their people fur ever, when it was learned what Terrible, widespread and intense hardship and destitution must prevail for many years before their countries recovered from the appalling debt and destruction Germany had, by the war, saddled them with. The only doubt remaining in the minds of the Conference who compilod the Terms ywa« ,'are they sufficiently drastic to secure the end in view, and being' *"fery uncertain about (hat aspect they made provision for increasing the indemnity should it be found, in practice, that too much leniency had been shown. Five thousand millions will only go a little way in paying damages and replenishing the exchequers of the various Allied nations. In a case of this kind, the old doctrine, "do unto others as you would they should do unto you," is impracticable. German war lords had no such view or intention when they plunged the world into that awful-war. Germany has violated all moral, civil, and military laws in her ruthless devastation of other countries <ind in bathing those territories with the best blood of modern civilisations. Justice demands that payment of the full bill of costs should be enacted; that, the debtor is not in a position to meet her liabilities is no concern of the Allies from the justice point of view, yet a fraction only of the debt is being stipulated for in the terms that have been presented. The Allies are justly entitled to declare Germany bankrupt! and A o take possession of whatever assets there are, but it will stand to their everlasting credit thai; they have no desire to crush a nation out of existence.

and that, they have -formulated Semis whereby they are. confident Germany can liquidate her debts, and earn an honourable national status within a reasonable period, without inflicting undue hardships on the masses of the German people. At the same time, it was essential to German rapid rehabilitation that the old war spirit should be crushed and deprived of all means of repeating the series of hellish orgies upon which the curtain of peace is now going down. Let it be understood that the Allies are at this moment feeding that struck its fangs so deeply, and disastrously into them. They arc not meting out to Germany such conditions as Germany forced upon France at the close of the FrancoPrussian war. Bismarck then believed he had, by the terms demanded, made France a prospective vassel of Germany, but France has demonstrated to the world that it is next to impossible to kill a modern nation, except by such processes as Germany applied to Serbia. France has furnished the world with evidence of the marvellous almost miraculous recuperative powers possessed by modern peoples. With this evidence and demonstration before them, Delegates at the Peace Conference made the Allied bill of costs such that Germany could not only pay. but which would not act as a serious deterrent 'to rapid return tonormal primary production; to rc-hahi-lilation of German industries, and to the establishment of stable and more just Government. France has regarded the Terms so lenient as to constitute no guarantee of immunity from a. German return to war in the near future, and, although. France has agreed to them, there is an obvious dissatisfaction throughout the country. France realises that money hitherto spent on Germany's Army and Navy is ample to soon wipe out the indemnity. In fact, there are no serious grounds apparent to create the belief that the Terms are anything more than what Germany is quite capable of complying | with. Allied demands have been tempered .with the desire to avoid that crushing determination with which Germany's terms to France in 1871 were fraught, There, should be little doubt in the mind of any person who understands the situation about the terms on which Germany may secure peace being just and humane from the German viewpoint, and Germany' is not likely to persist in any determination in refusing to accept them. Germany must have peace to avert starvation and

j complete political breakdown. If the ' terms are not signed on due date, supplies of food will be discontinued, and the blockade will be tightened so that nothing can enter Germany on which life and industry must depend. We are convinced that the Allies have tixed an irreducible minimum, and we are equally convinced that the minimum will prove move acceptable to Germany than what its- rejection stands for. Germans cannot sink to the indignity of having Berlin in the occupation of French troops, but. that is the almost certain risk they would be taking'in rejecting the fair, just, humane conditions provided in the Terms, through which lies their road to a permanent j and honourable peace. Germans may. give trouble, but they will sign.